The last Star Wars movie to hit theaters was 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. There was so much toxicity surrounding the sequel trilogy for daring to have a diverse cast and storylines that didn’t cater to the Extremely Online Fanboys, and many of its stars have spoken out about how bad their experience was. While the Poe Dameron and Kylo Ren characters have appeared in Disney+’s animated series Star Wars Resistance, none of the main characters have gotten their own live action spin-off series.
In SWR, Oscar Isaacs returns as Poe, but Adam Driver does not voice Ren. As for the lack of continuation of any of the sequel storylines, I’d just assumed that no one on the studio or the talent end wanted to touch any of that mess. Well, as it turns out, Driver actually did want to revisit his role. In an interview with the AP, he revealed that he approached SW mega producer Kathleen Kennedy about a Kylo Ren/Ben Solo-centric movie titled The Hunt for Ben Solo. He even got Steven Soderbergh to help him develop a script. At the end of the day, however, Lucasfilm was into the idea, Disney was not.
“I always was interested in doing another Star Wars,” Driver told the Associated Press in an interview published Monday. “I had been talking about doing another one since 2021. [Producer] Kathleen [Kennedy] had reached out. I always said: With a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second. I loved that character and loved playing him.”
After he took an idea to director Steve Soderbergh, with events set after 2019’s Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker, Kennedy and a writer, Scott Z. Burns, of Contagion and The Bourne Ultimatum, got involved too.
“It was called The Hunt for Ben Solo and it was really cool,” Driver said. “But it is no more, so I can finally talk about it.”
Cause of death: rejection.
“We presented the script to Lucasfilm. They loved the idea. They totally understood our angle and why we were doing it,” Driver said. “We took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman, and they said no. They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.”
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Disney and Lucasfilm for comment on Driver’s remarks.
Soderbergh said in a statement to AP that “I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.”
Driver has previously spoken about his character’s arc having morphed into something else over the course of making the trilogy Driver was involved in. He was originally written as darker and didn’t become softer over time.
“I had an overall arc in mind that [director J.J. Abrams] wanted to do, which, you know, then changed,” Driver said on The Rich Eisen Show in 2024. “His idea was that [Kylo’s] journey was almost the opposite of Vader. Where Vader starts the most confident and the most committed to the dark side, and then by the last movie, he’s the most vulnerable and weak — he wanted to start with the opposite.”
I’m kinda shocked that Disney didn’t take advantage of Steven Soderbergh’s offer to make a Star Wars movie for them, but I’m with Bob Igor and Alan Bergman on this one. The franchise had a good thing going on in 2021 thanks to the popularity of The Mandalorian and its other TV series. They didn’t need more movies. People were finally forgetting about the disastrous way they dropped the ball on The Rise of Skywalker. Why remind them? Hell, even 2025 is too soon to give a crap about Ben Solo.
I suppose whatever happens next will depend on the success of The Mandalorian and Grogu, which comes out in May 2026. That said, I’m so over the Skywalker family saga. I want something new! Let’s explore what Manny Jancinto’s The Stranger/Qimir is up to (RIP The Acolyte). Give me more of the Andor world with a Cleya, Val, or Cinta spinoff. Or, just come up with something else entirely original, like Skeleton Crew. There’s a whole galaxy out there with plenty of stories to be told.
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- Adam DRIVER, acteur, lors du photocall du film « Megalopolis » en compétition au 77ème Festival de Cannes au Palais des Festivals le 17 mai 2024 à Cannes, France.
Photos credit: Robert Bell/INSTARimages, Valentina Claret/Avalon, IMAGO/Avalon, Getty
I want this so bad. The Rise of Skywalker was so bad, it needs something to fix it. I think Steven Soderbergh could fix it with this.
I hope this generates some buzz and Disney reconsiders.
So agree, I would give my money to watch it!
Me, too. I’ve already signed 2 change.org petitions. I just hated the way they killed off the entire Skywalker family. It just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth and kind of taints the rest of the films for me.
There are ways to bring Ben/Kylo back, besides just handwaving like they did with Palpatine. They could go the same route as Ahsoka. They could have Rey involved, considering she’s supposed to be some sort of soulmate to him. It could work.
I’d like a Kylo Ren movie BEFORE the Force Awakens.
Another ‘Somehow Kylo Ren came back’ would be a disaster 🤣
Leia using the force to …space walk/navigate/propel? was already awful….surprise, Kylo didn’t actually die because we are out of ideas. No.
As a prequel is the only way and I’m not sure there is enough material to make that good.
I may be alone here, but I would want the whole movie to be like the Kylo Ren Undercover Boss sketch on SNL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaOSCASqLsE
I’m with Bob Iger here. not going forward was a good call. I saw this on social media but didn’t realize that the idea was that Kylo Ren didn’t die and that the movie was a post RoS movie. How utterly stupid.
I love Star Wars but I’ll admit the plethora of spin offs and series are wearing on me. Tell a completely new story that doesn’t have anything to do with Star Wars.
I’m also in the minority bc I thought Adam Driver was awful as Kylo Ren and he’s my last favorite part of that trilogy.
Hmm, I thought he was one of the best things about the films. Kylo Ren is definitely the most popular character from the sequels.
I don’t think that says a lot considering how the fan base treated pretty much anyone who wasn’t white and male in those movies.
I stand by my opinion. Especially in the Force Awakens. He’s awful – the character is awful, Driver cannot act, and I don’t think he’s especially attractive. He’s so overhyped to me.
Agreed, probably the best part of the movies was him. I absolutely disliked what they did with the other characters, and hated Rey with a fierce passion.
@Becks1
Sith Lords aren’t supposed to be attractive (this is also the case in the SW games) because they need to be ‘disliked’ by the audience from the start. So in that regard he perfectly fit the role.
I don’t consider him ‘attractive’ either but I absolutely support non-attractive people to be the leads in movies (the obsession with attractiveness in american movies makes no sense story-wise most of the time)
Oh, well, I think Adam Driver is hot as hell, but milage may very. I like that he doesn’t look like the average leading man.
There definitely was a lot of racist and sexist crap thrown at so many of the characters, but I also think there were some legitimate criticisms with how those characters were written. That’s often overlooked because the racist, sexist crap, rightfully, gets more attention.
They absolutely should have done more with Finn. He should have been force sensitive and made a Jedi. They should have given him, Rose and Poe a better story in TLJ than the irrelevant stuff they had them do. They were all good characters, but the films did nothing good with them.
I would argue that Driver was one of the better actors and still not great because the script was lame.
I will die on the hill where Adam Driver is hot AF .
@AlpineWitch oh i don’t need my actors to be hot to be in leading roles, at all. But see the other comments here about how attractive he is, lol. That’s more what I’m referring to. I dont care that he wasn’t attractive in that role (I mean I’m not complaining about Palpatine physically lol), but a lot of the hype around him is because hes so attractive and he’s just not to me.
And I don’t think he can act worth a damn.
Again I stand by my opinion, but I’m laughing at how much pushback there is for it lol. All Star Wars fans take their opinions seriously not just the toxic bros.
(And I’m including myself in that lol.)
He was given a lot of material to work with anyways, whether one thinks he acted that material well or not. And good for him for getting that material. And it’s not his fault but it came at a cost. Which is one of my issues with the whole trilogy. Oscar Isaac and John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran are all talented actors but they got almost nothing, Isaac slightly more. I didn’t mind him getting lot of the focus with Rey but even their story was a bummer imo. The first one was promising, the second one was kind of interesting, and the third one was a buzzkill. Throwing my opinion into the ring.
They should have done it. That director in particular would have attracted interest from more than just the usual fans. And, well, how it ended in Rise of Skywalker was so awful they couldn’t have made it worse. 😂
Mandalorian will be successful because they have the budget tight and kept it child-friendly. Will it be good? Ehhhh, maybe?
I could see something more coming out of Andor, which was a masterpiece. But Acolyte? That could not be more dead, clearly. With Skeleton Crew my guess is Jude Law pops up in something Mandalorian-adjacent.
I will NEVA forgive Disney for what they’ve done to the Skywalker family or to the Star Wars movies. (Except for Rogue One)..on the screen & OFF the screen😠
Rogue One (IMO) is the best of the entire Star Wars universe.
I am an OG Star Wars fan — I saw the original film in the theater in 1977 at the age of 12 — and I hated the way they ended Rise of Skywalker and the trilogy. The most egregious thing for me was that George Lucas has always said that Star Wars is about HOPE, and then they ended the saga after 42 years by killing off the only child of Han and Leia, and Luke’s nephew?!?!?!? They created the “Dyad” concept, two people who shared a soul, and then ripped away one half of that shared soul? The cruelty of the the sequel trilogy’s ending was astonishing.
The sequel trilogy was far from perfect, but Adam Driver was an absolute stand-out, and I loved the emotional complexity he brought to a character that could have been a one-dimensional “villain”. That character had so much more potential to be explored. The dead don’t always stay dead in Star Wars, and since there was no Force ghost of Ben Solo, there are several possible ways narratively to bring him back.
When Steven Soderbergh and Adam Driver come to you wanting to make a Star Wars movie, you say YES. Good grief, this was a terrible decision on Disney’s part, but considering the number of missteps he has made (the live-action Snow White, Tron:Aries, and of course the Kimmel fiasco) it’s clear what an absolutely terrible CEO Bob Iger is. As a lifelong Star Wars fan, I would walk on broken glass to see a Ben Solo redemption film. Disney absolutely blew it on this.
Yeah, I hated how at the ending, instead of everyone celebrating, everyone was crying. Like, what? They should be happy!
@ AZ cat lady, Amen! What are they drinking up at those Disney offices! As an OG Star Wars viewer (saw the Original at 12 in a theater) I just want them to hold onto something good and hopful about the stories. But now, whenever I see the Behind the scenes production meetings, you know they learned writing by talking about synergies and conceptualizing blah, blah, blah. Where is the story Arc and the hero’s journey? Do they know what this means? Where is the Love of who these characters are?
I was 10 in 1977 and Star Wars WAS MY LIFE that whole summer. You’re saying exactly what I came here to say: I wanted a better ending for Han and Leia’s boy. I’m firmly in the camp of “If Carrie Fisher had still been alive for Ep 9, TRoS would have been much better” because she would’ve tuned up some of that writing. The loathing I feel for TRoS is off the charts, and I would love nothing more than a do-over and a happy ending.
A03 writers (many of whom are absolute Star Wars nerds well-versed in the lore) have come up with so many plausible ways that Ben Solo could still be alive, with the World-Between-Worlds being the most popular choice. It can be done, and it can make money, so Iger’s reluctance is disappointing. Guess he’s afraid he might lose the “bad guy” Kylo Ren character at Galaxy’s Edge? Who knows…
Wow, I’m really behind the times as I liked the last 3 movies!
I’m still bummed that Adam Driver dissolved his “ARTs in the ARmed Forces” mentoring and arts supporting non profit org for veterans in 2023. Is started in 2008. Driver is a former Marine. He had a screenplay and playwriting competition/contest that was being judged by Stephen Soderbergh in it’s last year of existence. And just like that….it shut down! I was so bummed. Nothing has replaced it. A big void.
I hadn’t heard his program was shut down. I wonder what happened.
I’m up for anything that could possibly make Episode 9 feel any better, that ending was just so bad. And with all the crazy stuff they’ve been doing to the story over the last decade–they can’t see how Ben Solo could be alive? Really? Anyone can be alive!!
Also—you had an opportunity where Adam Driver actually wanted to work with you and you turned him down? That’s wild.
He totally sunk the movies for me. His acting was horrible, he was the weakest link. No one GAS about emo kylo ren. 🤷